MS-13 member Jose Rafael Ortega-Ayala, inset, was sentenced to life for killing a 16-year-old fellow gang member suspected of snitching to cops (mug shot via Prince George's County (Md.) Police Department; image of crime scene via YouTube screengrab/WUSA)
A 30-year-old MS-13 gang member was sentenced to life for the killing of a fellow gang member — a teenager — whose body was stabbed over 100 times and whose burned corpse was found off the side of a road in Virginia, all because his gang thought the victim was snitching to cops.
Jose Rafael Ortega-Ayala, aka "Impaciente," was sentenced this week in a federal court on charges of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering conspiracies, murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to destroy and conceal evidence. It was a case connected to one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the U.S., federal prosecutors said in a news release.
"To hear somebody was stabbed 100 times, per the medical examiner, pretty much speaks for itself how violent the attack would have been," Prince George's County Police Department Maj. Brian Reilly said in a news conference after the March 8, 2019, killing.
Ortega-Ayala was convicted on Dec. 16 after a two-week trial, along with two co-defendants who were also sentenced to life in prison, officials said.
The killing happened at the Maryland home of one of the gang members during a meeting to talk about suspicions that the victim was in contact with police about the gang's activities, authorities said.
When the victim was questioned about his supposed cooperation with the cops, fellow gang members assaulted the teen. They also attacked another gang member who tried to defend him. But the victim was ordered killed anyway, authorities said. He was stabbed over 100 times in the basement before Ortega-Ayala and others drove his body to a secluded area in Stafford County, Virginia, where it was dumped and set on fire.
A Stafford County Sheriff's deputy found the burning body in a remote, grassy area along the Rappahannock River before dawn on March 9, 2019, police said.
The victim was identified through tips police received from the public after releasing a photo of a distinctive tattoo on the victim's left forearm.
The victim's mother told Washington NBC affiliate WRC-TV that MS-13 gang members had also threatened his family and said he told them to kill him instead. She said that their family fled their native El Salvador after her son was forced to join the gang, and had been trying to get out of the gang in the U.S. when he was killed.
"They threatened him, and they would follow him to work. He worked at IHOP," she told the station. "Every day, he would leave [the house] with fear."
She said he knew he would be targeted, even arming himself with knives, screwdrivers and razors.
"He told me, 'Mom, I'm going to defend myself with them, but it's not going to be enough,'" she said, the station reported.
Ortega-Ayala and his co-defendants were members and associates of the Los Ghettos Criminales Salvatruchas (LGCS or Ghettos) clique of MS-13, an international gang composed primarily of immigrants from El Salvador and other Central American countries.
The gang is expected to protect its name, reputation, and status from rivals at all times, using any means necessary to force respect from those who disrespect the gang, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.